courtesy of The Buddah Group
Promotional 45 RPM Record Sleeve
Listen to the PowerhouseRadio.com production of The Curtis Mayfield Story featuring Curtis
10 minutes, 13 seconds
The big break came with their recording of "For Your Precious Love" in 1958. The record, their first, sold 150,00 copies in the first two weeks and remains an R&B classic but, ironically, its success broke the group apart. Without consulting the group, the record company gave lead singer Butler special credit and labelled the singles, "Jerry Butler and The Impressions."
In Curtis' words, "It somewhat created hard feelings among fellas that were all striving equally and trying to make it."
This unexpected prominence also made it inevitable that Jerry would leave the group to sing on his own, putting The Impressions back where they started.
"We went back and starved a little bit," Curtis says.
While The Impressions lay dormant, Curtis got back into show business as Jerry Butler's guitar player for almost two years -- until he had saved up enough money to get the group back together and bring them to New York.
Continued
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